Atari games are coming to Teslas via software update

Here’s some unexpected fun, courtesy of the man himself. Elon Musk announced via Twitter today that Teslas will be getting a handful of classic Atari titles in the next four weeks, courtesy of a software update.

Along with already announced self-driving features, Version 9.0 of the electric vehicles’ software update will include “some of the best” old games as an “Easter Egg.” The eccentric CEO appears to be soliciting suggestions via social media at the moment, including Pole Position, Tempest and Missile command, among others.

Tesla has relied pretty heavily on software updates to help push features. Sure, this one is in good fun, but an update arriving late last year brought the fairly necessary addition of FM radio and a tripometer to the Model 3 — both pretty glaring omissions.

Some of best classic @Atari games coming as Easter eggs in Tesla V9.0 release in about 4 weeks. Thanks @Atari!

The games will likely be playable on the cars’ massive center display tablet, which is positioned in portrait mode on the Model S and X and in landscape on the Model 3. One presumes that the titles will only be playable when the vehicle is parked, so as to avoid having to explain to the officer that you crashed your car because you were playing Frogger.

Speaking of not going anywhere, Pole Position will apparently use the steering wheel as an input — again, when the vehicle is fully parked. Indeed, $49,000 is an admittedly steep starting price for a new Atari console, but at least you can drive the thing around when you’re done with Missile Command.

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The games will likely be playable on the carsu2019 massive center display tablet, which is positioned in portrait mode on the Model S and X and in landscape on the Model 3. One presumes that the titles will only be playable when the vehicle is parked, so as to avoid having to explain to the officer that you crashed your car because you were playing Frogger. n

Speaking of not going anywhere, Pole Position will apparently use the steering wheel as an input u2014 again, when the vehicle is fully parked. Indeed, $49,000 is an admittedly steep starting price for a new Atari console, but at least you can drive the thing around when you’re done with Missile Command.u00a0n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:”rendered”:”

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“One presumes that the titles will only be playable when the vehicle is parked,..”n

I wouldn’t make that presumption.n”,”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/01/atari-games-are-coming-to-teslas-via-software-update/#comment-610530″,”type”:”comment”,”author_avatar_urls”:”24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9801e493c295fb85bbddc6c3deaf22a6?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9801e493c295fb85bbddc6c3deaf22a6?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9801e493c295fb85bbddc6c3deaf22a6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”,”techcrunch”:”avatar”:”https://ct.yimg.com/cy/1768/39361574426_98028a_64sq.jpg”,”company”:”(no company found)”,”title”:”(no title found)”,”user”:”GIU5WPFLC25OBEWPZWORJZFPA7″,”_links”:”self”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments/610530″],”collection”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments”],”up”:[“embeddable”:true,”post_type”:”post”,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1684399″]]],”author”:[“id”:699688,”name”:”Brian Heater”,”url”:””,”description”:””,”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/author/brian-heater/”,”slug”:”brian-heater”,”avatar_urls”:”24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/69b6dc548d05dedd0132f12e075bf7de?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/69b6dc548d05dedd0132f12e075bf7de?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/69b6dc548d05dedd0132f12e075bf7de?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”,”links”:”twitter”:”https://twitter.com/bheater”,”linkedin”:”http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-heater/1/a92/94″,”crunchbase”:”https://www.crunchbase.com/person/brian-heater”,”position”:”Hardware Editor”,”cbDescription”:”

Brian Heater is the Hardware Editor at TechCrunch. He worked for a number of leading tech publications, including Engadget, PCMag, Laptop, and Tech Times, where he served as the Managing Editor. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. 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